Education testing and skills assessment is an important aspect of childhood education. In the context of reading, the de facto method to assess a student's reading ability is the running record. A conventional running record has been a paper and pencil work flow method for the teacher, involving a specialized shorthand notation. The teacher uses a paper-based worksheet to mark data while a student is performing an assessment thus creating a “running record” of the child's reading performance. The running record tallies the student's accuracy in reading and the errors made.
While the teacher gains tacit knowledge about the student when capturing a running record, the process does not easily capture the breadth of possible data. It is only a paper record of the teacher's hand written markings and notes that they can make in real time, and it can vary based on the method used or the purpose for which it is gathered.
This document describes improved methods for gathering much more data during an assessment of a student's reading ability.